Heh.
 

Ezra Klein:

• So Bush calls Alberto Gonzales "Fredo." The Iraqi refugee who repeatedly misled US intelligence was code-named -- by us! -- "Curveball."
  
  You ever get the feeling this administration is just a particularly elaborate piece of performance art?

Chappa-what-ick?
 

I favor democracy, but sebby says it can't work.

Chappa-what-ick?
 

I said it shouldn't work because if it did, we'd have socialism. Algebraically, this validates Hank's charge against you.

Don't hold me to the math. I went to law school.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

You're mistaking "idiot" and "chickenhawk" with Republican. I will always believe, even if it makes me a loon in the forest screaming to no one, that there is a moderate centrist GOP base that favors socially moderate and fiscally conservative positions. I NEED to believe that.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

I think there are 28 of us, at last count.

Chappa-what-ick?
 

Except that Hank's the one who likes to point out that nothing's the matter with Kansas, where the unwashed masses elect Republicans.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Chappa-what-ick?
 

From my perspective, he's wrong. They are illogical.

But from say, Greedy's perspective - emphasizing principles - Hank's spot on. If the thing Kansans hold most dear are their social values, then their votes make sense. You could even say they are exceptionally principled, since they are sacrificing money for what they believe are social positives.

ETA: And Frank Rich is whining fucking horse's ass anyway. only a truly pompous effete imbecile would pen a book that obnoxious. I've seen him interviewed and read him for years. He's the third guy I'd like to slap, behind Krugman and Limbaugh.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

Good. I won't feel guilty about driving drunk anymore.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

Where I am, being a Republican isn't this at all. It's voting R strictly because of the perception (let's put aside whether it's correct) that the Dems will not be willing to do what it takes at home and abroad to protect our asses as much as an R. I know tons of people who fit that category. None want to sound manly (especially the women) and aren't into tribaling around with a bunch of anti-choicers and other assorted would be liberty-curbers.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

Please. Calling Dems soft in this way is just the flip side of showing that you're more ready than the next guy to use force on foreigners.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

Then these people are astronomically stupid when it comes to assessing risk. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, if you die before you reach your gender's life expectancy, it won't be from a foreign soldier or terrorist.

Chappa-what-ick?
 

I suspect they are exceptionally principled, and that one of their principles is that the idea of a moderate, fiscally conservative wing of the Republican Party is an amusing little bit of history as relevant to life today as evolution.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

You and I don't agree on much, but you have my proxy on this. I have never been able to understand how Dems would be worse on protecting us than Republicans. Other than that silly argument Hank makes about Clinton not taking out bin Laden when he had the chance. I think this is a case where perception clouds facts. That the GOP's leader took us into a pre-emptive war doesn't prove they're the better protector. It proves they've got a wild foreign policy agenda.

Al Gore would have bombed Afghanistan just as ruthlessly. He just wouldn't have gone into Iraq.

And we'd all have higher taxes.

Chappa-what-ick?
 

Still, voting for someone who shares your delusion doesn't make you irrational. Maybe Frank Rich just needs a better Thesaurus.

No, I take that back. He's just a dick.

Idiotic McCain Feingold Bill
 

I haven't read the case, but I am pleased about this decision:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/...ign_finance_12

Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
 

If you're going to post today about free speech, why that decision and not also the one involving the Alaskan teenager? Together, the two cases stand for the principle that rich people have the right to buy politicians, but high-school students can't piss off their principals.

Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
 

I'm not aware of that one. What are the facts?

In other free speech news, I'm displeased about the Bong Hits for Jesus case.

Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
 

The Bong Hits For Jesus case is the Alaskan teenager case.

Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
 

If so, then the law hasn't changed a bit. These are two fairly well-established principles of our democracy.

S_A_M

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

I dunno. Half a trillion dollars spent in Iraq - we could build a lot of solar power facilities for just a fraction of that.

Bong Hits 4 Jesus.
 

Yes, that one.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_YOw3nSLCVDs/.../s400/bh4j.jpg

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

We'd all have hot showers on sunny days, but it would cost more to drive to work. That's the plan, right?

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

Or off-shore wind farms.

What's the matter with Central Park West?
 

You may well want to slap Frank Rich, but the book "What's The Matter With Kansas?" was written by a journalist/historian named Thomas Franks. http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-K.../dp/0805073396

I think that his argument is a stupid one, frankly (hah!) -- people vote "against" their economic interests all the time, and the it was lampooned quite nicely as a bit of hand-wringing condescending drivel in Walter Shapiro's piece in the Atlantic Monthly called What's the Matter With Central Park West?

• Why, then, does Central Park West cling so stubbornly to irrational Democratic Party loyalties? The most plausible explanation is that the prickly voters of CPW feel that their traditional moral values (getting into Yale on merit, reading books other than the Bible, cherishing things from France) are not fully embraced by President Bush . . . CPW is an insular and hidebound neighborhood, brimming with cultural resentments unfathomable to outlanders.

Who's bending down to give me a rainbow?
 

What I don't get is this: they say the wind farms can be bad for birds who get stuck in the rotors, but have they factored in the number of birds who will be saved because once you locate a wind-farm off Nantucket the rich folks will all go to the Berkshires and let the birds have the beach back?

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

First, know that if i post something it is rooted in fact. Your baseless slander might well be based upon the fact that you post any odd shit that pops into your brain for half a second. I don't roll that way- I never call you out for it, but don't you ever post anything like that again. Final. warning.

Second, if Al Gore had been President 9/11 we'd all better pray that a plane took out the White House because I promise you that gore wouldn't have taken the steps to keep us safe here.

Third, anyone here concerned sadaam is going to give some WMDs to terrorist now? exactly.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

We should invade Chile. There's your rationale, and also Henry Kissinger once called it a dagger pointed at the heart of Antartica.

This reminds me of something, but I can't think of what:

• As the old saying goes, there is no wingnut angrier than a wingnut living in the Bay area.

linky

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

I wouldn't count on this to elect a lot of Rs at this point. Where is it exactly you're from?

Who's bending down to give me a rainbow?
 

I'm sure Al Gore can explain it.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

NIMBY!!!!!*


*If and when my back yard abuts a Kennedy home

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

First of all, I was debunking your "tribal" stereotype about all Republicans being either A or B. I pointed out a class of voters who went Repub that didn't fit your mold and said I wasn't commenting whether their perception was right or wrong. But... now that you are calling those voters idiots for perceiving Rs to be stronger on national security issues....you can blame the Dems for that perception. You guys hailed John "Let Me Ask France First" Kerry as the top man for the job. I'd say that was idiotic, not the perceptions of those who passed on your candidate.

Why hasn't anyone called Carter a Traitor yet?
 

And I was saying that your "debunking" was just another way of saying B.

As for the rest of the post, maybe you were thinking of someone else.

Uh Oh
 

!6 More Words
 

Club, you may recall that the Dems readily dismiss with a wave of the hand any military intelligence that starts off "....the British Government has learned"

!6 More Words
 

While conservatives are happy to go to war with a Middle Eastern country on the basis of what's been reported in a British tabloid, so long as they get to go to war?

!6 More Words
 

we do better when we have an army to fight, you have to admit.

!6 More Words
 

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

!6 More Words
 

• You're not punk,
  and I'm tellin everyone.
  Save your breath,
  I never was one.

Jawbreaker- Boxcar